BookSpeak Network

Today on Milford House Mysteries, co-hosts Sherry Knowlton and JM West talk about “Book Event Etiquette” – some tips for authors about how to best prepare for book events and some of the etiquette involved in a typical event. Book events offer a great way for authors to connect with readers – potential readers, longtime fans of their work, and everyone in between. Movies and TV shows about writers almost always depict author events as book signings – usually with long lines of fans queued up to get their copy of a book signed by the author. And, in real life, book signings often work just like that. But some are multi-author book signings. Some events are built around a speech or informal talk by the author. And many other opportunities for events abound depending upon your book. Sherry and Joan discuss the ins and outs of such events and how to prepare for your next event.

Milford House Mysteries Hosts - Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams series of murder mysteries including Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, Dead of Spring, Dead of Winter. and Dead on the Delta. Joan West is the author of the Carlisle Crime Cases series including Dying for Vengeance, Courting Doubt and Darkness, Darkness at First Light, Had a Dying Fall and Things Strangled. West recently released her first historical work, Madame Bessie Jones: Her Life and Times.

The time is 1911, in Piedmont, Italy. A budding young musician, Pietro thinks nothing but of music and working in the family vineyard with his grandfather, Nonno. Circumstance takes a tragic turn, as Pietro must pull up stakes, and armed with only his clarinet, emigrate to America.

Also on a voyage of her own is Assunta, a woman who also seeks a new life. Settling in Pennsylvania, the two watch family and friends grow, change, and fall around them.

Music, and a will to survive and live drive Pietro and Assunta, as they seek to turn their worlds "From Ashes to Song."

Hilary Hauck is a native of Great Britain, and spent formative years in Italy. Inspirations of her second home, and Pennsylvania Coal Country are here in "From Ashes to Song." Hilary is a past president of Pennwriters, and Chair of the Festival of Books in the Alleghenies. She lives in rural Pennsylvania.

On this episode of The Milford House Mysteries, co-hosts JM West and Sherry Knowlton interview author Bruce J. Berger. Following a 40-year career as a trial attorney in Washington, DC, Berger turned fulltime to writing, earned a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from American University, and now teaches there. Berger's latest novel, The Music Stalker, was released in October by Black Rose Writing. Kirkus Reviews says that The Music Stalker is "A tale that shines a light on the redemptive power of religion and relationships." Berger’s previous novel, The Flight of the Veil, has achieved critical success, recently winning an award in General Fiction from Illumination Book Awards Berger has also published more than 50 stories and poems in a wide variety of literary journals.

Milford House Mysteries Hosts - Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams series of murder mysteries including Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, Dead of Spring, Dead of Winter. and Dead on the Delta. Joan West is the author of the Carlisle Crime Cases series including Dying for Vengeance, Courting Doubt and Darkness, Darkness at First Light, Had a Dying Fall and Things Strangled. West recently released her first historical work, Madame Bessie Jones: Her Life and Times.

William (W.P.) Rigler has made his creative way through the written word as the author of "Certain Shadows I Have Known," "Stranger Thoughts," "Terror's Taste," and other works. With an eye for the paranormal, horror and fantasy, he is also known as Adam Dust in the science fiction world with "Masters of the Alpha Crystals."

A graduate of the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland and the New York Film Academy, Rigler is also an actor and serves as a tour guide of select haunts in his hometown of Havre de Grace, Maryland.

On this episode of The Milford House Mysteries, co-hosts Joan West and Sherry Knowlton interview author, C. Lee Ryder about her new book, Black Clover. InBlack Clover Ryder tells the true story of the heart-wrenching small town murder of her brother in the Amberson Valley of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. She also details the lengths to "which the legal system can be manipulated if the family doesn’t fight back." Tune in to hear Ryder discuss Black Clover and her family's fight to obtain justice for her brother's murder.

Milford House Mysteries Hosts - Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams series of murder mysteries including Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, Dead of Spring, Dead of Winter, and Dead on the Delta. Joan West is the author of the Carlisle Crime Cases series including Dying for Vengeance, Courting Doubt and Darkness, Darkness at First Light, Had a Dying Fall, and Things Strangled. West recently released her first historical work, Madame Bessie Jones: Her Life and Times.

An author, journalist, and educator, David Healey has proven himself prolific, in both the fiction and non-fiction worlds. "Pacific Sniper" is the latest in a series of novels that looks down the sight of that particular specialist, both from the American and Japanese perspectives, in an island battle. 

Healey's writings take us through world and civil wars, step into the Young Adult vein with the Sea Lord books, and history of the Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva Peninsula.

A newspaper reporter and editor, Healey's articles have appeared in "The Washington Times," "American History," "Chesapeake Bay Magazine" and "Running Times." He is also a speaker on numerous historical and writing topics.

Mike Jacobs is a young, idealistic environmental lawyer working for the Department of Environmental Protection, and he is thrown into a case of intrigue, violence, and courtroom drama in "Amid Rage." A Western Pennsylvania strip mine is the battleground as its owner will do whatever it takes to get every bit of coal from the ground, and if it means buying off landowners (or stronger tactics), then so be it. In the middle is Jacobs, up against the owner, his high-powered Philadelphia lawyer, and a system and state government that seems unwilling and disinterested in doing the right thing.

Joel Burcat returns to the Brown Posey Press Show with "Amid Rage," available on Headline Books. An environmental attorney, Burcat has written five novels, and has edited two eminent books on environmental and oil and gas law, and co-edited seven editions of "Pennsylvania Environmental Law and Practice."

A Philadelphia native, Burcat now lives with his wife in Harrisburg, PA.

Lee Anne Post is the pen name for co-authors Catherine Baldau, Tara Bell, Ginny Fite, and K.P. Robbins. Stories by these award-winning authors have appeared in numerous journals and individually they have published nine novels. They have worked as reporters and editors, in politics and philanthropy, and in advertising and educational institutions. Having met in a writer’s critique group for over five years, they were spurred by their collective grief and then admiration as they watched Parkland students deal with the aftermath of that shooting. 

Pushcart nominated, Ginny Fite is the author of six traditionally published novels: Cromwell’s Folly; No Good Deed Left Undone; Lying, Cheating, and Occasionally Murder; No End of Bad; Blue Girl on a Night Dream Sea, and Possession. Her collection of linked short stories, Stronger in Heaven, was shortlisted for the 2019 SFWP prize and a finalist for the 2020 Bakwin Prize. Her short stories have been published in numerous journals such as The Delmarva Review, SFWP Quarterly, and the Anthology of Appalachian Writers. A graduate of Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University, her communications career included posts in journalism, higher education, government, and industry. She also studied at the School for Women Healers and the Maryland Poetry Therapy Institute. www.ginnyfite.com

On this episode of The Milford House Mysteries, co-hosts Joan West and Sherry Knowlton give a nod to the season with Halloween Haunts and Horrors in Books & Movies. Joan and Sherry talk about the origins of Halloween and the various traditions and creatures associated with the holiday. They spend most of the podcast talking about the many books, movies and television shows that have grown out of Halloween's spooky roots and created a flourishing horror genre. They also talk about some of their favorite books which share some of the spine-tingling aspects one associates with Halloween even though they're not typically placed in the Halloween or horror categories. Tune in for some terrifying suggestions about what to read or watch to put you in a Halloween mood.

 

Milford House Mysteries Hosts - Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams series of murder mysteries including Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, Dead of Spring, Dead of Winter. and Dead on the Delta. Joan West is the author of the Carlisle Crime Cases series including Dying for Vengeance, Courting Doubt and Darkness, Darkness at First Light, Had a Dying Fall and Things Strangled. West recently released her first historical work, Madame Bessie Jones: Her Life and Times.

Displaced is Linda Schwab’s Holocaust memoir, a retelling of her experience surviving 18 months in a man-made cave, another year as an exile in Poland and Germany, and three years as a refugee in a displaced persons camp. Just six years old when a band of Nazi soldiers arrived in her tiny shtetl in Myadel, Poland, Linda observed atrocities no child ever needs to witness.

Written with historian Todd M. Mealy during a time when Holocaust deniers aim to rehabilitate the Nazi ideology and as roughly 400,000 survivors remain with us, Displaced presents Schwab’s singular voice. Her narrative will help maintain—if not bolster—Holocaust knowledge, as her story of surviving the Polish wilderness during WWII and in a Displaced Persons Camp after the war is unique from most accounts. Displaced will inspire the rest of us to confront hatred in its many forms.

Todd Mealy is a 20-year public school educator and an adjunct professor in the History Department at Dickinson College. He works primarily in the areas of education, civil rights, and sports culture. Mealy received his Ph.D. in American Studies, with a focus on race and society from Penn State University. He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of seven books, including Linda Schwab’s Displaced: A Holocaust Memoir and the Road to a New Beginning. His next book, a history of racial slurs in music, will be published in 2022. Todd is currently working on the authorized biography of Jane Elliott, educator and creator of the Blue Eye, Brown Eye Exercise.